Recommended by Dave Osmundsen

  • Water and Blood
    15 Jun. 2022
    Can we grieve for someone we never knew? What do we do with our tragic family legacies? How do we cope? In this brief but powerful play, Probst weaves together multiple narrative strands to tell a story of grief, guilt, and moving on. Gorgeously written and deeply compassionate.
  • Satellites
    14 Jun. 2022
    Intimate and epic, this gorgeous play explores how time and space factor into the life of a seemingly ordinary couple. Breznitsky imbues both characters in this two-hander with dreams and desires, and one comes to understand and empathize with both of them. The non-linearity of the narrative is masterfully executed, allowing the audience to feel how time catches up with these characters through snippets and snatches of echoed dialogue. Ultimately, the play is a moving meditation on love and dreams, and how we return to those we love after achieving our greatest goals. Brilliant work!
  • Kill Shelter
    13 Jun. 2022
    I saw a reading of this play at the Valdez
    Theatre Conference. This is an incredibly powerful, beautifully plotted, and emotionally resonant script that explores classism, hypocrisy, parenting, and other themes with clarity and a healthy dose of humor. Colleen is one of the most compelling and compels characters I’ve seen in a contemporary play, and her relationship with her daughter is incredible moving and beautiful. Highly recommended!
  • PARALYSIS
    2 Jun. 2022
    A brilliantly unsettling yet deeply compassionate play about friendship, grief, and the horrors that await us in both dreams and reality. Smith has created a beautiful friendship between Lily and Joy, and despite the play’s brevity, you get a full sense of their relationship dynamic. The horror elements are beautifully executed, and the play succeeds in suspending the audience somewhere between reality and fantasy, to the point that you don’t always know where you are, creating a feeling of delightful unease. Fantastic work!
  • Welcome to Keene, New Hampshire
    14 May. 2022
    “Welcome to Keene, New Hampshire” takes a page from Thornton Wilder’s seminal play “Our Town” and transports us to a real-life small town in Southern New Hampshire. However, Polak’s play goes deeper to explore wider social issues, such as alt-right movements, gun violence, the opioid epidemic, and trans identity, each treated with the right amount of weight and attention. This play is also rife with snarky humor and poignant musings about our place in the universe. A messy play that doesn’t offer easy answers and allows the audience to contemplate life itself. Wonderful work!
  • The Perfection of the Donut
    7 May. 2022
    So a Samuel D. Hunter play walks into a Taylor Mac play…

    Tucker-Meyer displays a gift for linguistic acrobatics in this charming and delightful comedy about three deeply superficial dandies and a nondescript “Dude” who taps into his inner fabulousness with their help. Unabashedly queer, open-hearted, and delectable as the most scrumptious donut, this play will make you want to be your most fabulous self.
  • TARTARUS
    12 Mar. 2022
    Sickles plunges into some dark territory with this piece! Fusing both social horror (the devastating impact of society's apathy towards the death of gay man) and psychological horror (the inner workings of a sociopathic serial killer), this terrifying short play cycle explores innocence, desire, homophobia, trauma, and revenge with economic and delicately-formed language. Most effective are Ellen's monologue (a mother's desperate plea for answers) and Basyl's monologue (a chilling rumination on revenge).
  • Succulents: The Art of Adulting OR Reasons I Am A Terrible Roommate
    26 Feb. 2022
    Barsanti shows an incredible gift for creating compelling, relatable, and complex characters. She lovingly satirizes the foibles and anxieties of millennials without cruelty, and you feel so much empathy for the three friends at the center of this play. This play also makes a bold statement about the millennial need to change the world, and how efforts to ameliorate the world can prove futile—but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. Part female buddy comedy, part millennial satire, and part environmental allegory, this is a rich and satisfying play that I want to see produced!
  • Family Tree
    26 Feb. 2022
    How do we move forward when the past seems to be always holding us back? How do we deal with scorched-earth family relations? Considine doesn't offer easy answers, but she does provide us with dynamic characters and relationships. Isabella's interior monologues especially are hilarious and heartbreaking.
  • Temperance in Reverse
    24 Feb. 2022
    Reminiscent of family dramas such as "Next to Normal" and "Ordinary People," this compelling and rich play explores how one family copes with a devastating and traumatic event. Their journey towards healing and reconciliation is heartfelt and realistic. Halton is a playwright who loves his characters deeply--everyone is flawed, but no one is the villain, and everyone is believable. There is also a healthy dose of humor and laugh-out-loud lines through the play.

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